Integrated farming with intercropping increases food production while reducing environmental footprint

Qiang Chai; Thomas Nemecek; Chang Liang; Cai Zhao; Aizhong Yu; Jeffrey A. Coulter; Yifan Wang; Falong Hu; Li Wang; Kadambot H.M. Siddique; Yantai Gan

doi:10.1073/pnas.2106382118

Integrated farming with intercropping increases food production while reducing environmental footprint

Qiang Chai, Thomas Nemecek, Chang Liang, Cai Zhao, Aizhong Yu, Jeffrey A. Coulter, Yifan Wang, Falong Hu, Li Wang, Kadambot H.M. Siddique, Yantai Gan

Agronomy and Plant Genetics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

87 Scopus citations

Abstract

Food security has been a significant issue for the livelihood of smallholder family farms in highly populated regions and countries. Industrialized farming in more developed countries has increased global food supply to meet the demand, but the excessive use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides has negative environmental impacts. Finding sustainable ways to grow more food with a smaller environmental footprint is critical. We developed an integrated cropping system that incorporates four key components: 1) intensified cropping through relay planting or intercropping, 2) within-field strip rotation, 3) soil mulching with available means, such as crop straw, and 4) no-till or reduced tillage. Sixteen field experiments, conducted with a wide range of crop inputs over 12 consecutive years (2006 to 2017), showed that the integrated system with intercropping generates significant synergies-increasing annual crop yields by 15.6 to 49.9% and farm net returns by 39.2% and decreasing the environmental footprint by 17.3%-when compared with traditional monoculture cropping. We conclude that smallholder farmers can achieve the dual goals of growing more food and lowering the environmental footprint by adopting integrated farming systems.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	e2106382118
Journal	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume	118
Issue number	38
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2106382118
State	Published - Sep 21 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. We are grateful to Dr. Chris Barrett (Cornell University), Dr. Ken Giller (Wageningen Centre for Agroecology and Systems Analysis, The Netherlands), and Dr. John Kirkegaard (The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia), for their suggestions of improving the manuscript. The work was supported by the Research Program Sponsorship of Gansu Provincial Key Laboratory of Aridland Crop Science, Gansu Agricultural University (Grant GSCS–2016–01), the Innovation Group of Basic Research in Gansu Province (Grant 20JR5RA037), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 31360323 and 31771738), and the Modern AgroIndustry Technology Research System (Grant CARS–22–G–12). Additional funds to the field experiments were provided by the National Key Technology Research and Development Program (Grant 2012BAD14B10), the Special Fund for Agro-Scientific Research in the Public Interest (Grant 201103001), and the Excellent Youth Foundation of Gansu Scientific Committee (Grant 1111RJDA006). In each of the 12 study years, 10 to 30 undergraduate and

Funding Information:
We are grateful to Dr. Chris Barrett (Cornell University), Dr. Ken Giller (Wageningen Centre for Agroecology and Systems Analysis, The Netherlands), and Dr. John Kirkegaard (The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia), for their suggestions of improving the manuscript. The work was supported by the Research Program Sponsorship of Gansu Provincial Key Laboratory of Aridland Crop Science, Gansu Agricultural University (Grant GSCS-2016-01), the Innovation Group of Basic Research in Gansu Province (Grant 20JR5RA037), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 31360323 and 31771738), and the Modern Agro-Industry Technology Research System (Grant CARS-22-G-12). Additional funds to the field experiments were provided by the National Key Technology Research and Development Program (Grant 2012BAD14B10), the Special Fund for Agro-Scientific Research in the Public Interest (Grant 201103001), and the Excellent Youth Foundation of Gansu Scientific Committee (Grant 1111RJDA006). In each of the 12 study years, 10 to 30 undergraduate and graduate students from Gansu Agricultural University were involved in plot implementation and data collection during their thesis training at the Wuwei Research and Education Station. Drs. Wen Yin and Zhilong Fan from the College of Agronomy, Gansu Agricultural University, were involved in supervising some students in experimental implementation and data collection.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Environmental sustainability
Food security
Intercropping
Relay-planting
Rhizosphere

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Chai, Q., Nemecek, T., Liang, C., Zhao, C., Yu, A., Coulter, J. A., Wang, Y., Hu, F., Wang, L., Siddique, K. H. M., & Gan, Y. (2021). Integrated farming with intercropping increases food production while reducing environmental footprint. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 118(38), Article e2106382118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2106382118

Chai, Q, Nemecek, T, Liang, C, Zhao, C, Yu, A, Coulter, JA, Wang, Y, Hu, F, Wang, L, Siddique, KHM & Gan, Y 2021, 'Integrated farming with intercropping increases food production while reducing environmental footprint', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 118, no. 38, e2106382118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2106382118

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abstract = "Food security has been a significant issue for the livelihood of smallholder family farms in highly populated regions and countries. Industrialized farming in more developed countries has increased global food supply to meet the demand, but the excessive use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides has negative environmental impacts. Finding sustainable ways to grow more food with a smaller environmental footprint is critical. We developed an integrated cropping system that incorporates four key components: 1) intensified cropping through relay planting or intercropping, 2) within-field strip rotation, 3) soil mulching with available means, such as crop straw, and 4) no-till or reduced tillage. Sixteen field experiments, conducted with a wide range of crop inputs over 12 consecutive years (2006 to 2017), showed that the integrated system with intercropping generates significant synergies-increasing annual crop yields by 15.6 to 49.9% and farm net returns by 39.2% and decreasing the environmental footprint by 17.3%-when compared with traditional monoculture cropping. We conclude that smallholder farmers can achieve the dual goals of growing more food and lowering the environmental footprint by adopting integrated farming systems.",

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author = "Qiang Chai and Thomas Nemecek and Chang Liang and Cai Zhao and Aizhong Yu and Coulter, {Jeffrey A.} and Yifan Wang and Falong Hu and Li Wang and Siddique, {Kadambot H.M.} and Yantai Gan",

note = "Funding Information: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. We are grateful to Dr. Chris Barrett (Cornell University), Dr. Ken Giller (Wageningen Centre for Agroecology and Systems Analysis, The Netherlands), and Dr. John Kirkegaard (The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia), for their suggestions of improving the manuscript. The work was supported by the Research Program Sponsorship of Gansu Provincial Key Laboratory of Aridland Crop Science, Gansu Agricultural University (Grant GSCS–2016–01), the Innovation Group of Basic Research in Gansu Province (Grant 20JR5RA037), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 31360323 and 31771738), and the Modern AgroIndustry Technology Research System (Grant CARS–22–G–12). Additional funds to the field experiments were provided by the National Key Technology Research and Development Program (Grant 2012BAD14B10), the Special Fund for Agro-Scientific Research in the Public Interest (Grant 201103001), and the Excellent Youth Foundation of Gansu Scientific Committee (Grant 1111RJDA006). In each of the 12 study years, 10 to 30 undergraduate and Funding Information: We are grateful to Dr. Chris Barrett (Cornell University), Dr. Ken Giller (Wageningen Centre for Agroecology and Systems Analysis, The Netherlands), and Dr. John Kirkegaard (The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia), for their suggestions of improving the manuscript. The work was supported by the Research Program Sponsorship of Gansu Provincial Key Laboratory of Aridland Crop Science, Gansu Agricultural University (Grant GSCS-2016-01), the Innovation Group of Basic Research in Gansu Province (Grant 20JR5RA037), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 31360323 and 31771738), and the Modern Agro-Industry Technology Research System (Grant CARS-22-G-12). Additional funds to the field experiments were provided by the National Key Technology Research and Development Program (Grant 2012BAD14B10), the Special Fund for Agro-Scientific Research in the Public Interest (Grant 201103001), and the Excellent Youth Foundation of Gansu Scientific Committee (Grant 1111RJDA006). In each of the 12 study years, 10 to 30 undergraduate and graduate students from Gansu Agricultural University were involved in plot implementation and data collection during their thesis training at the Wuwei Research and Education Station. Drs. Wen Yin and Zhilong Fan from the College of Agronomy, Gansu Agricultural University, were involved in supervising some students in experimental implementation and data collection. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.",

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Integrated farming with intercropping increases food production while reducing environmental footprint

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access

OpenUrl availability

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